Activities

Lighting Africa: Catalyzing markets for Off-Grid Lighting through Private Sector Development 

The Lighting Africa program is a market-based approach, grounded in the recognition that:

• There is a considerable commercial market opportunity and willingness to pay for off-grid lighting, substantiated by annual expenditures on kerosene amounting to $38 billion and $17 billion, globally and in Sub-Saharan Africa, respectively

• Recent technological advancements in lighting, particularly in the area of Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs), demonstrate increased promise to deliver affordable technological solutions tailored to the African marketplace and beyond.

• The era of the incandescent is fading into the shadows as new, more energy efficient, durable, and superior lighting technologies take center stage.  At the same time, the global lighitng industry, much of which has reached a point of maturity, is optimistically looking for new growth opportunities and young emergent markets to promote and test the latest innovations and product designs in modern off-grid lighting.

• The most expedient and sustainable way to bring affordable, reliable lighting to Africa is by supporting the industry to design and deliver an array of products tailored to the needs of African consumers.

Responding to Industry Need

All Lighting Africa program activities are designed with and for the industry and other stakeholders.  Through ongoing consultation with a wide array of stakeholders (including private companies, NGOs, financiers, governments and other key players along the supply chain) opportunities are identified where Lighting Africa can play an appropriate role in accelerating the off-grid lighting market in Africa.

Lighting Africa members working together to help shape program design to best address their needs

Where We Work: Lighting Africa Program Areas

In repsonse to consultation with diverse stakeholder groups from around the world, the Lighting Africa Program is currently formulating objectives and undertaking work in the following program areas:

Policy & Regulation: Addressing policy and regulatory barriers;

Financing: Improving access to finance along the distribution chain- for example through partnership with Financial  Institutions (FIs), the provision of grant programs, potential carbon finance opportunities, and other financing mechanisms; 

Product Quality Assurance: Addressing issues of product quality to enable consumers to make informed purchase decisions and prevent market spoilage;

Market Intelligence: Collecting & disseminating key market information needed to fill knowledge vacancies in the supply chain; for example, information that enables linkages via the identification of potential distribution networks and baseline data to define the the African consumer- product attribute and design preferences, consumer demographics, price point/ willingness to pay, lighting requirements and current lighting habits, etc.

Environmental Sustainability: Addressing ways to mitigate the potential negative environmental impact associated with the production, use, and disposal of off-grid lighting products (e.g. hazardous waste disposal of batteries, take-back/recycling programs)